


Fish Fingers

by Aramirandme81



Category: The Almighty Johnsons
Genre: Childhood Trauma, Dead fish - Freeform, Episode Related, Gen, Not Happy, Ty can be a bit of an arse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-27
Updated: 2014-01-27
Packaged: 2018-01-10 06:24:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1156192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aramirandme81/pseuds/Aramirandme81
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I was challenged by the lovely Elenhin.  <br/>“When Anders gets back from the Frigg hunt where Thor busts his nose. He looks really miserable there sort of, and going inside having been beaten, and finds his fish dead, all he says then is calling Ty a prick, but what about later that night, or maybe the day after? I keep thinking about Anders, and hurting and feeling lonely and all the fish is gone....”<br/>This is my, somewhat delayed, response.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fish Fingers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elenhin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenhin/gifts).



Anders can’t sleep.

Lord knows he’s tried and he’s sure tired enough that you would think sleep would come to him easily enough, yet as much as he’s tried to catch it after what feels like hours lying in bed sleep continues to prove elusive. 

He sighs and starts to turn over but then winces.

The sigh pulled on the muscles in his face which in turn pulled on his aching nose, and the movement of turning pulled on his shoulders which also ache from his fall.

Which fall? What happened to his nose?

Oh nothing really.

Just a little run in with a guy who just happens to be Thor incarnated, who just happened to throw a hammer after his younger brother but Anders and a surfboard got in between. The force of the blow knocking him back and onto the ground, ‘Hard’ his shoulders and back would like to ad. 

As if that isn’t enough, once he’s down there Axl actually steps on the surfboard and leans his weight into it trying to get the hammer out...of the board not Anders thank Gods.

Then once he’s up again and tries to help Axl, again, Derrick, the Thor maniac, hits the board slamming it into Anders already bruised nose this time hard enough to make the blood go spilling and damn near breaking it.

 

That is not the reason he can’t sleep though.

Lord knows he’d never have gotten any sleep growing up if he couldn’t sleep through the pain of a few bruises or broken bones.

No as much as it’s annoying and somewhat distracting, it’s not his body that keeps him up. 

Nor is it even really his mind though his thoughts all jumbled up and too unsettled for him to find any real peace, and as long as his mind is making so much noise he can’t sleep.

Normally he would have poured himself a drink and gone to have a little chat with his fish. Let his troubles flow out with his words and let the sight of them swimming calmly along settle his thoughts and calm his being.

But oh yeah, Ty, his former favourite brother, have killed his fish.

And instead of getting in touch with Anders to tell him in person that he’s killed his pets or hell even just left a note, Ty not only fails to apologise but in a supreme fit of humour replaced them with fish finger.   
Anders does NOT find that amusing...at all.

Not just because he hasn’t eaten fish since he got his first goldfish years ago way before they moved to Auckland and even if he had fish-fingers are about as disgusting as it gets, but there was that whole ‘incident’ with Anders, the rugby team and the dumpster full of fish-fingers that had been so rancid even the school lunch lady who’s cigarette ash could often be found on various foods would not serve them... Anders has to sit up and put his head down even in spite of the pain to make the nausea go away. Damn it, he’d been eleven and he’d still get nightmares and nausea about that more than twenty years later, the least Ty could have done was remember it.

But even that wasn’t the main reason, though it was a big second, nor was it the fact that Ty hadn’t apologised. Anders was used to being asked to be sorry and apologise for everything he did short of breathing, but he’d also learned to accept that he would not be offered one in return even if he was subjected to the exact thing they had demanded an apology for not days before.

No it was the fact that Ty had killed his fish. Killed, capital K. They had been living beings. 

Anders didn’t even know if it had been intentional or not. He’d like to think he knew Ty would not do something like that... but his fish was gone and he’d been left with something Ty knew gave him nightmares for years instead.

 

Had it been quick? Anders hoped so. He hated to think about the poor little things suffering even a second.

Had it been Ty or had it been Hod? Because Ty had been angry and Anders knew he got ‘Hod’ when he got pissed... Anders didn’t know if that made it better, that it might have been Hod. It meant that his fish had been frozen and then been replaced with frozen fish. Again: Not funny.

 

Anders sighed and slowly sat up straight again, yeah the nausea was dying down.

Fuck it, he hadn’t even been able to remove the box of fish-fingers yet.

He couldn’t even touch the glass without h having to throw up.

Anders frowned.

It was kind of an insult to his late fish that that thing was still in their former home. And it wasn’t like he had anything left in his stomach so...

Slowly getting up, seriously his back was killing him, he went to the kitchen and got out his tank cleaning kit.

He’d have to do the whole tank he knew so he got out the tools that would let him open the top flap more than a few centimetres and set to work.

 

There is a reason Anders has a housekeeper. Or you know, had a housekeeper.

Oh it’s not that he can’t clean. He can, according to his parents he’s freakishly good at it actually. But then with all the cleaning he’d done in his childhood and teenage years, as chores and punishment it’s neither a surprise that’s he’s gotten good at it nor that he hates it with a passion now, too many bad memories and painful associations.

Cleaning the tank though has always been something of a save-spot for Anders. The one cleaning job he actually didn’t mind. No one was going to tell him off for doing work, and no one would put him to work on something else because he was already doing chores. In short they left him alone. If it hadn’t been for such a distressful reason Anders would have found the cleaning of the tank as relaxing and therapeutic as he usually did. The fish being dead does put a bit of dampener on that though.

He ends up completely emptying the tank, throwing everything but the thermostat and filter out, and scrubbing and rinsing the tank five times or so. 

It still doesn’t feel quite right though.

Anders sighs as he put’s away the cleaning supplies. 

It’s only a few hours since he took a shower after returning home from the near disastrous road trip. Still he feels sort of gritty, and his skin itches.

He scratches at his neck and curses when his hand comes away with dried up flakes of skin and blood underneath his nails. Apparently his nose had started bleeding again at some point and now he has dried blood on both his cloths and his skin. How he’d failed to take notice he doesn’t know but now that he’s aware he can feel the dried tracks of blood on his face and he can see quite a bit of blood on the floor and the wall under the fish tank as well.

“Fuck.” He curses and goes to find something to get the blood of the floor and wall. 

Once that’s done, his back screaming at him when he bends down and even more so when he gets up, he hurries into the bathroom and after throwing the blood spattered t-shirt and sweats he’d been wearing into the sink to soak to get the blood out, he steps into the shower.

The hot water stings his sore nose so he only briefly turns his face into the spray, but it soothes his aching back so he sighs in relief and resolves not to get out until the water begins to turn cold.

 

Which it does, rather abruptly it seems.

One second he’s enjoying the hot spray, the next he’s shivering under rivulets of ice water.

With a startled yell he almost slips on the slippery surface only just managing to catch himself on the shower grip that’s there for just that purpose. 

Anders lets out a moan as his back twists painfully and seizes up in cramps powerful enough to send him to his knees.

It’s only when he opens his eyes and finds himself no longer in the bathroom but instead on the floor in his bedroom halfway into a pair of trousers that he acknowledges that something might be seriously wrong.  
Anders might not like being dependant on anyone but he’s not so stupid or reckless that he’s going to drive himself to hospital. And yes he is aware that blacking out, especially when he’s not had any alcohol or drugs in the last several hours, is something he should see a doctor about.

Pulling the pants on and gingerly getting up using the bed as support he reaches for his phone to call Ty... then he remembers what Ty did to his fish and changes his mind.

No, no he’s not calling Ty. He’s calling Mike instead.

Mike answers after the third ring.

“This has better be fucking important.”

“Mike, I...” Anders finds his word somewhat hard to get out and they seem to slur so he stops after just those two, which is fine since Mike interrupts him anyway.

“Fuck sakes Anders you know what time it is?”

“I..no I...” Anders has no idea what time it is and for some reason that throws him off and he loses track of what he was saying.

“You have got to stop drinking so much Anders, I’ve had enough of your drunk calls, don’t call me again so late unless you’re dying or it’s actually something important.” And with that Mike hangs up on him.

‘dying or something actually important... dying OR something actually important?!’ No that didn’t hurt at all Mike, why would you think that?

Anders feels like something is squeezing his ribcage and he has to close his eyes and concentrate on breathing or he’s afraid he’s going to faint.

 

When he does open his eyes again he’s on his back on the bed, the phone he’d held in his hand when he closed his eyes is on the bedside table. 

This is becoming a real worry now and he slowly reaches out for the phone. 

Ty is out so is Mike. 

Olaf? No, no his grandfather was still stoned when they dropped him off at his place.

Axl then...? Well he did tell Thor to leave Anders alone. The thought makes Anders smile a little even if it hurts his face to do so. Yeah Axl it is.

Only Anders luck is true to form and Axl’s phone goes straight to voicemail. 

“Shit.”

This leaves him all out of family, and he doesn’t really have the type of friends that you could call about this.. well maybe Dawn? Can he claim Dawn as a friend? He secretly does, but will she agree?   
‘well,’ he thinks ‘she’s certainly not the type of person who would disagree to help someone get to the doctor.’ So he tries her.

“Yeah?” Ty’s voice answers Dawn’s phone and Anders blinks twice before hanging up without ever uttering a word.

That...

That’s....

.... Right, Cab company it is then.

 

Anders dials the local company and orders a ride then get’s up and goes to the closet for a shirt.

And blinks awake when the nurse shakes him to wake him and ask him questions to check if his brain is still fully functional with the concussion he’s suffered.

He knows his name, address and social security number. He knows the year, the month and who the prime minister is. What he doesn’t know is how he got to the hospital... but he doesn’t tell the nurse that. He just plays along as best he is able and hopes he can go home soon.

He needs to buy new fish so he has someone he can rely on, even if it’s only to listen without interrupting and to bring him a sense of calm by just being there and not demanding anything of him other than to be feed.

Anders sighs and lets’ his mind wander to what kind of fish he should get this time... and this time when he loses track of time he doesn’t bother to worry. 

 

It’s late on Saturday when the doctors says that he can go home but they would like it if he stayed for the night just in case, since the many blackouts has them worried. Yes Anders has told them about those, he might not like hospitals but if he’s there he’s going to be ill enough that he’s going to be honest..well as honest as he can given his somewhat special circumstances. Seeing that it’s too late to go for the fish and all he has is an empty apartment and no desire to go drink or flirt he opts to go with doctor’s recommendation and stays in hospital for the night. 

During his night check up the nurse urges him to report whoever it was that beat him up, because as much as he claims it was a close encounter with a surfboard there is just no way she’ll believe that.

Anders has to roll his eyes at that. It figures that the one time he can truly say it was a surfboard that hit him no one believes him.

He wonders a little at that until Bragi makes himself known and let’s Anders know that it’s bloody taxing for the god to catch him when he’s falling and to ‘operate’ his body when he’s out for the count. So he should bloody well look better after himself, since Bragi is pretty fond of Anders.

Well, that answers how he’d been getting around when he was out. Anders can’t help but feel pleased that at least his god is somewhat fond of him even if no one else is.

 

Having settled the last of his doubts, well there is still the concussion but the worst is over and he’s just to be careful not to get into any high strung situations, ‘yeah that’s going to be doable with his family’ and to take it easy for a few days, ‘as long as they don’t need him he’s fine with that’, he’s out of there bright and early Sunday morning. 

 

A quick stop home to change and get ready and he’s off to pick out the new fish.

 

Anders of course has never been one to go the regular route. No, when he does something he does it right. 

So it’s not just a trip to the local pet store and going ‘five of those please’. Oh no. Anders will not be satisfied with just any fish or any plant or cheap plastic thingy in his aquarium. 

He has a certain store he prefers and he usually spends a good couple of hours picking out just the right fish and then just the right plants and ground covering and such.

When he’s been there an hour the clerk, who’s new, have actually called his boss because he was worried about Anders ‘just standing there starring’, but the owner knows him so she just smiles at him and tells the clerks to leave him alone but to offer him every service and once he makes up his mind to simply do whatever he asks, and if he wants to get the fish himself instead of having the clerk fish them up then he’s to let him.

The clerk scratches his head but prepares to do as ordered.

Anders smile at the little piece of ‘drama’ playing out behind him.

Because he’s not ‘just starring’, he is in fact observing and listening.

He’s not the only one in his body and he’s not the only one who has to ‘get along’ with the fish. And since Bragi can actually sort of understand the fish he gets a say in picking them out. If he didn’t before then he certainly does after what he’s done for Anders this weekend.

‘That one.’ The god whispers and Anders feels his gaze directed to a little off colour fish with a white spot on it’s fin. 

Anders smiles as the little fish swims over immediately when he touches the glass with the tip of his finger. 

“Yeah, that one.” He concurs, and waves the clerk over. “I’m ready.”

The clerk watches in amazement when Anders simply lovers the net down and the fish Anders wants all but swim into the net on their own.

He ends up getting five fish, a couple of plants, a coral and some nice pale stones for the bottom of the tank.

 

He’s gotten home and have only just finished adjusting the tank for the fish when Dawn calls.

She wants to know why he called her last night.

“It was a mistake don’t think about it.”

“But, you don’t usually call that late without a reason. Well what you call reason anyway but ...”

“It was nothing.”

“You weren’t drunk calling me were you?”

Anders sighs. He’s not drunk dialled anyone since he was about seventeen, and Mike’s reaction quickly taught him not to do that so he’s never done that to Dawn and she’s never thought of him doing it before and she’s seen him drunk plenty of times. So it must be Ty that told her about it... not even a weekend into their apparent relationship and his brother is already ruining what little credibility he has with the one person outside his family he’s ever really cared for. That’s nice that is.

“It was nothing important Dawn you go back to your Sunday afternoon.”

“But...” 

Anders can hear the stubborn in her voice and knows he’ll have to give her a reason or Bragi her into hanging up.

“I just wanted to know what happened to my fish. Then I realized the time and hung up. Now you go back to Ty and you have a good day doing ... well each other I expect. Now I’m going to hang up, I have important stuff to do.”

Anders is a little disappointed when all Dawn does is hang up. Seems she wasn’t so curious or worried after all. 

But that’s okay. Anders thinks as he carefully and gently put the fish into their new home.

Now that Anders has his new fish and he knows Bragi has his back he has all the friends he needs.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes I do know that you cannot set up a fish tank that quick and expect the fish to live. Yes I know you have to let the tank ‘become a climate’ for a week or so before you can add the fish. And that once you add the fish you should add some of the water from their old tank as well. But explaining that in the fic would have killed it. I think we can all agree on that. And I needed it to be done in a day, so voila: fic-world- magic!
> 
>  
> 
> Please review and comment or feel free to press the little button marked ‘Kudos’.  
> Cheers! Aramir.


End file.
